Flat pusher assembly for package arrangement and display

ABSTRACT

A package display pusher assembly has a vacuum thermoformed tray, a vacuum thermoformed pusher arm, constructed independently of the vacuum thermoformed tray and a spring. The spring is coupled to the vacuum thermoformed tray at one end and the vacuum thermoformed pusher arm at it other end, configured to bias the pusher arm towards a point where the spring is coupled to the vacuum thermoformed tray.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/213,350, filed on Sep. 2, 2015, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

Field of the Invention

This application relates to package displays. More particularly, this application relates molded pushing devices for package displays.

Description of Related Art

In the area of product displays there are hundreds of displays for holding small commercial packages on shelves in retail locations. Such displays are common for small commercial packages where the product and package combination itself are not sufficiently sized for individual stacking and organizing on a shelf. Small retail products such as craft items, seed packages, small packaged food items/spice packets etc. . . . are often arranged in a plastic tray, such as an open top walled thermoformed tray that holds the packages for retail sale.

However, as users take out the first few items from such trays, the products become disheveled and unorganized making them unappealing and, in some cases, less accessible or inaccessible from the front of the shelf. To address this, in the prior art many trays and contraptions have been devised that have an arm that biases the product packages forwards so that as a first item is removed the remainder are pushed forward for better arrangement and access for the next customer. These more advanced displays tend to be more complex and expensive to make.

For example, some current pusher display arrangements are made from injection molded rigid plastics that require high cost tooling to be produced, long lead times to manufacture, and are otherwise not designed to be recycled or to be environmentally friendly. These items were designed to be used in a permanent display format where the display would be replenished during its multi-year life cycle. Currently, some displays that only intended for temporary use are using such pusher trays even with their high cost per unit, inefficiencies in handling and storage, and potential breakage due to the brittleness of the material.

SUMMARY AND DESCRIPTION

The object of the present invention is to provide a low cost flat pusher assembly made from thermoformed plastic that is easily made and shipped and can be inserted into all manners of correspondingly sized walled tray assemblies.

The present pusher arrangement is manufactured using the vacuum forming method. This allows for the use of thin gauge sheets of plastic to form a hollow three dimensional parts from recycled plastics such as PET (Polyethylene terephthalate). The use of the vacuum forming process gives the diversity to develop the present pusher tray arrangement with minimal tooling costs, very little size restraints and the ability to be recycled in current municipal systems. This wide diversity allows for a much broader use of pusher trays in general.

To this end the present arrangement provides a package display pusher assembly having a vacuum thermoformed tray, a vacuum thermoformed pusher arm, constructed independently of the vacuum thermoformed tray and a spring. The spring is coupled to the vacuum thermoformed tray at one end and the vacuum thermoformed pusher arm at it other end, configured to bias the pusher arm towards a point where the spring is coupled to the vacuum thermoformed tray.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention can be best understood through the following description and accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates a pusher assembly tray in accordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 2 illustrates a pusher arm in accordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 3 illustrates an assembled pusher assembly in accordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 4 illustrates an assembled pusher assembly in accordance with another embodiment;

FIG. 5 illustrates several assembled pusher assemblies in accordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 6 illustrates an assembled pusher assembly in accordance with another embodiment;

FIG. 7 illustrates an assembled pusher assembly in accordance with another embodiment;

FIG. 8 illustrates another view of the pusher assembly of FIG. 7 in accordance with another embodiment;

FIG. 9 illustrates an assembled pusher assembly within a package display, in accordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 10 illustrates an assembled pusher assembly and tray, in accordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 11 illustrates an assembled pusher assembly and tray, in accordance with another embodiment; and

FIG. 12 illustrates an assembled pusher assembly and tray, in accordance with another embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As illustrated in FIG. 1, a pusher tray 10 is provided. Pusher tray 10 can be made from any vacuum formable polymer, such as PET, or other suitable material. Due to the softer nature of vacuum forming materials, tray 10 is constructed so that it can bend without breaking. Moreover, the hollow design of tray 10 acts as a buffer during shipping (e.g. when trays 10 are stacked) to reduce product breakage. For example, the hollow vacuum forming manufacturing process used for tray 10 makes it possible for the various parts to an assembled pusher assembly (described below) to nest one inside of the other. This makes it possible to package two to three times the number of pusher assembly components within the same container unlike injection molded pusher displays that do not nest.

As shown in FIG. 1, tray 10 has guide grooves 12 and a spring/rubber-band lock 14 located at the front end of tray 10 in central cavity 16. FIG. 2 shows a pusher arm 20 with guide lugs 22 that fit into guide grooves 12. As Shown in FIG. 3 tray 10 and pusher arm 20 are arranged together to form a pusher arrangement 40 by connecting a rubber band 30 to band lock 14 as well as pusher arm 20 resulting in the fully formed pusher arrangement 40 with a forward biasing arm 20.

In another embodiment, FIG. 4 shows the pusher arrangement 40 that uses a coiled/uncoiled metal spring arm 32 in place of rubber band 30. FIG. 5 shows a plurality of the assembled pusher arrangements 40 side by side. FIG. 6 shows an alternative arrangement for pusher assembly 40 that is essentially the same as FIG. 4 except that tray 10 also has vacuum thermoformed walls 18 for helping to maintain commercial products in the correct alignment as pusher arm 20 pushes the items forward (via boas spring 32).

FIGS. 7 and 8 show an alternative arrangement for assembly 140. Here Tray 110 has the same guide grooves 112 and spring/rubber-band lock 114 located at the front end of tray 110 in central cavity 116. As in FIG. 4, assembly 140 has a spring 132. In this embodiment spring 132 has a cut locking notch 133 (“T” cut punch in metal spring) that connects with spring lock 114 (“V” cut) and pusher arm 120, rather than being a hollow body is simply a flat arm insert 120 with support flange 124 (see FIG. 8). Such an arrangement can also be used with a tray having side walls (e.g. FIG. 6)

FIG. 9 shows another embodiment with pusher assembly 40/140 inserted into a display carton with commercial products therein, illustrating a typical use. FIGS. 10, 11 and 12 are essentially the same as the arrangement shown in FIG. 6, where tray 10/110 has side walls 18 (or 118 if such version of assembly 140 is used). However, in these embodiments, side walls 18/118 and trays 10/110 are connected into a joint assembly 50/150 (rather than individual assemblies 140).

All of the above described embodiments offer a product package pusher assembly 40/140 that can be durably constructed from vacuum thermoformed constituent parts (tray 10/110 and pusher arm 20/120). As noted above, the benefit of vacuum forming the components is that unlike rigid injection molded parts, when assembled the injection molded parts must be engineered to allow clearance tolerances when assembling. The vacuum formed parts can be designed with interference due to the part's ability to flex and deform to temporarily accommodate mechanical interference.

Such an innovative design for pusher assemblies can impact the retail market by integrating a pusher assembly (40/140) with the shipping carton and allows the product to go directly to the store shelves without manually restocking every package. Once one end of the carton is opened the entire carton of product can be placed onto the shelf and automatically dispensed as customers remove the lead product. Pusher assembly 40/140 then can advances the next product into the forward position that was just vacated.

In this manner ordinary walled product package displays can be easily provided with an insertable biased pusher arm (part 20/120 of assembly 40/140) that allow products to be inserted on top of tray insert 10/110 between either the front of tray 10/110 (i.e. possibly tray wall 18/118) or a front of a product carton such as shown in FIG. 9.

It is noted that both thermoformed pieces of pusher arm 20/120 and tray 10/110 can be stamped and thermoformed from a single sheet of plastic making the device inexpensive to manufacture. Moreover, the designs for both base 10/110 and pusher arm 20/120 are stackable for easy and inexpensive shipping and only require a basic rubber band for completion.

While only certain features of the invention have been illustrated and described herein, many modifications, substitutions, changes or equivalents will now occur to those skilled in the art. It is therefore, to be understood that this application is intended to cover all such modifications and changes that fall within the true spirit of the invention. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A package display pusher assembly comprising: a vacuum thermoformed tray; a vacuum thermoformed pusher arm, constructed independently of said vacuum thermoformed tray; and a spring, wherein said spring is coupled to said vacuum thermoformed tray at one end and said a vacuum thermoformed pusher arm at it other end, configured to bias said pusher arm towards a point where said spring is coupled to said vacuum thermoformed tray. 